Key & Peele Talk About Their Developing Movie Projects

It wasn’t until I saw their hilarious “Liam Neesons” sketch earlier this year that I really got into “Key & Peele.” Since then, I’ve powered through almost all of their older episodes and watched the fourth season premiere of their show, which debuted this week. They’ve quickly become two of my favorite people in the comedy world, and it pleased me to no end when they showed up on another one of my favorite TV shows this year, “Fargo” (I spoke with them about that here). But while the guys have taken over the small screen, it appears that they have their sights set on the big screen as well.

In the latest edition of Entertainment Weekly, the duo talks about some of their developing film projects. Let’s run them down one by one, shall we?

First up: a Police Academy reboot. We’ve known about that one for a little while, but here’s their latest update: “We were brought on to take the creative lead with it,” Peele says. “We got two of our friends, Ike Barinholtz and Dave Stassen [both of The Mindy Project]—brilliant, funny men. They’re going to be penning the script.” But will Key & Peele star in the film? “When we start working with the script and seeing it, we’ll make the decision. Is Key and Peele a distraction from Police Academy? We’ll figure it out. Either way, we’ll make the best call for the movie.”

And how about that film with Judd Apatow that was in the works late last year? The initial idea has been canned, but they’re working on something else now: “We’re starting at step one again with that,” Key reports. “There was an idea with Judd, [but] we’re not doing that idea anymore. Now we’re going to start from ground zero and start all over again.”

Jordan Peele, who was a guest on our The Movie Crypt podcast, is developing a film with Richard Kelly’s Darko Entertainment – a project he’d direct, if all goes according to plan. “That’s a straight horror movie. I want to be essentially a thriller director. I’m a big fan horror movies. Rosemary’s Baby, Stepford Wives — I’m sort of taking a lead from that genre of film. It’ll be, just, very cool.”

And finally, here’s one fans of the show might get a kick out of. Remember Mr. Garvey, Keegan-Michael Key’s substitute teacher character that pronounces students’ names wildly incorrectly? We may be seeing him on the big screen soon. “We’re in negotiations at Paramount to make a ‘Substitute Teacher’ movie,” says Key. “Two of our writers are penning it. Well, they’re not penning it as we speak — it’s getting there.” Sounds like that one’s a little ways off yet, but these dudes are obviously staying busy, and I’ll embrace anything they put out that aims to crack us up as much as their show does. Seriously, if you’re not watching “Key & Peele” yet, get on that, people.

Ben is a writer living in Los Angeles, California. His work has been featured at ScreenRant.com, FirstShowing.net, MySpace.com, GeekTyrant.com, and many more sites across the web. Some of his favorite movies include The Rocketeer, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Tombstone, Lucky Number Slevin, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Collateral, Double Indemnity, Back to the Future and The Prestige. Follow him on Twitter: @BenPears.